French connection

Something interesting happened in train to Chennai today. Mom dad and I were travelling and a French lady 55 years old was looking a bit lost and seemed to be asking for directions. I offered to help her with directions and spoke in French. I know a bit. She was very thankful. She works for orphanages and and NGO based in Coorg and she is in Chennai to teach English to some slum children. Next week she is going to Dharamshala.

She was in Bangalore for 1 week and I helped her find her coach C1. Once I moved to my coach and the train moved away I was wondering if all was well with her and called on her mobile phone number which she had shared with me. But she was on wrong train and so had changed trains.

She had a tough time, not knowing the language but her spirit was good; she was smiling ; enjoying the experience.

Some coolies charged her a lot of money 100 Rs to go to the train platform; 100Rs to change to another train from platform 7 to platform 1; and then 100Rs in Chennai platform again; she was upset but was laughing
I have invited her over for dinner with mom and dad tomorrow evening

Would we ever do this; at 55 move to another country; look for impoverished areas there; and then help them
not knowing their language; suffer the corruption and then laugh and move on. This is human spirit -
to endure and persist.

I admire it and appreciate it.
That is my story.
P.S On a lighter note when she was boarding the train I mentioned the TGV (train de grande vitesse) capable of moving at 300km/hr in France. She rolled her eyes comparing it to Shatabdi train which move at a top speed of 100km/hr. It was funny to see her expression.

snake!

Yesterday Balaji, a colleague of mine and I met at the Krishna Temple on CMH road and 80 feet road intersection in Bangalore. We usually meet there around 8pm. Something interesting happened. There was a cobra snake that was coiled up in the shoe rack of the temple and it had its hood open. It was pretty intimidating to see the snake up close and personal at 4 feet away. A few well-meaning volunteers had gathered with tongs and wanted to put the snake inside a jute bag. I had learnt from watching Discovery Channel that this exercise is fraught with danger. Since the snake has the infra-red sensory pits it can thermal-image the handler outside the jute bag with a high degree of accuracy and one must be extremely careful of this. The volunteers had a plastic pipe into which they were planning to cajole the snake into. That might work only if it mellows down.

There is something about witnessing the hissing strike posture of a cobra that curdles the blood. One's primeval fears are materialized. One wants to run but the legs dont oblige. One is transfixed by the spectacle marks as the serpent sways. A mesmerizing toxic beauty. One is enchanted and transfixed. And when the head strikes one has scarcely a split-second to move. and should the strike land, one has 5 minutes of euphoric dizziness and agonizing helplessness. The neurotoxin shuts down the diaphragm so respiratory system grinds to a halt. Lack of oxygen to the brain and limbs makes one feel life ebbing away. The heart desperately compensates by beating at 200 beats per minute - more than 3 times its usual rate. And finally it gives up. The last 10 seconds one can only surmise the last thoughts as the brain accepts the inevitable fact - slowly sliding into a spiral of inky black oblivion.